Why Do US Judges Reject Antitrust Experts?

Economists regularly appear as expert witnesses in antitrust litigations. The chapter analyzes how their models and methodologies have performed vis-à-vis the standards of relevance and reliability affirmed by the US Supreme Court in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharm. Inc. (1993). New data are provided on the number of antitrust economists whose expert testimonies have not survived a Daubert challenge. Explanations for such a poor record range from the judges’ insufficient economic literacy to skewed procedural rules, from the high specificity of antitrust cases to widespread identification problems in economic models